He met Frances M. Morgan, of Knightstown, Indiana, while teaching at IU and they went on to marry on September 22, 1885.

[3] Swain accepted the invitation to serve as President for Swarthmore College in 1902 until 1921.

He retired from Swarthmore in 1921 as President Emeritus and died six years later from heart disease in Clifton Heights, Pennsylvania, on May 19, 1927.

[3] Swain was the ex-president of the Indiana State Teachers Association, member of the Section on Higher Education of the National Council on Education, member of the World Peace Foundation and served as president of the N.E.A.

[7] In 2016, Indiana University renamed the Student Building to the Frances Morgan Swain Student Building to honor his wife Frances for her work in trying to increase women enrollments and make it easier for women to acquire a college education during the 1890s.